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Early
November |
Containers Rolled
Dear Customers and Friends of Seajet! It seems so long ago that carriers almost competed each other out of business and lost a combined twenty billion dollars in 2009. Then they figured out (or maybe their banks did it for them) that reducing supply/capacity will lead to higher rates. This lead to a reversal of fortune for the carriers as they managed to recover all the losses of 2009 by the end of the third quarter this year. However in general rates are now softening again here and in Europe. From Asia to Europe rates have already fallen sharply and carriers have announced and begun taking vessels back out of rotation. This has not yet happened to the US but many in the international shipping industry believe that the carriers may adopt similar tactics again on the Asia/USA trade lanes if capacity outpaces demand leading to falling rates. We have now noticed for the 4th consecutive week that COSCO has rolled containers in Yokohama. However this needs a bit more explaining. There is only one service from the Far East calling the port of Boston directly. It is called AWE2 and the vessels are owned by COSCO who shares space on these vessels with 3 other carries; YML, K-Line and Hanjin. We hold contracts with all four of them however we are predominantly using COSCO and YML and to a lesser degree K-Line and Hanjin. The rotation is Qingdao-Shanghai-Ningbo-Yokohama-Panama Canal-Savannah-New York-Boston. From the south of China and Hong Kong COSCO, Hanjin, and K-Line use feeder vessels into Yokohama where they connect with the mother vessel sailing to the US. YML connects with the Mother vessel in Shanghai. The problem is that all four carriers overbook their allotted space and then roll containers in Yokohama or Shanghai respectively. At this point we are not sure if this is a sign of more trouble to come or just a periodic trouble spot. What we do notice is that vessel information seems to change constantly. From the time that we get the first vessel information from our offices at origin to the time that containers actually connect in Yokohama/Shanghai we may have up to 3 names. On COSCO’s own website the tracking results do not match the vessel sailing schedules. The problem is that the only alternatives are either to ship via the West Coast (MLB) at significantly higher cost or via New York also at higher cost and possibly delays in New York. Having said this, you may still prefer us to stop shipping your containers on the AWE2 service to Boston in return of a more dependable service. I suggest that you notify us when we advise you of containers that have been booked for you at origin. If you know that you simply cannot afford a one week delay (so far containers have only been rolled by one week) we can instruct our origin offices to switch to other services. I assure you that we are just as frustrated by this situation as you but it is obviously out of our control. The best we can do is to bring the current situation to your attention and start shipping through alternative routes if and when you instruct us to do so. If you have any questions or require additional information please feel free to contact us at any time. As always we thank you for your continued support. Sincerely yours,
Andreas Bauermeister,
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Seajet Express Inc., 46 Arlington Street, Chelsea, MA 02150 - Telephone 617.884.0991 - www.seajet.com |
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